Houkago Teibou Nisshi – 01

ED Sequence

ED: 「釣りの世界へ」Tsuri no Sekai e by Umino High School Teibou-bu

「ていぼう部」 (Teibou Bu)
“Breakwater Club”

Doga Kobo’s latest anime Houkago Teibou Nisshi shares a genre held and mastered by Tsuritama as an anime about the wonders of fishing. But as a slice-of-life anime, our main exploration into the pastime aims to help show viewers the ins-and-outs of fishing in a cute, cozy manner without the stress of alien invasions or interpersonal strife.

The anime follows your standard premise of introducing us to Tsurugi, a city girl moving to a coastal town for high school where she intends on joining the Handicrafts Club. But when she meets Kuroiwa, a local who shows her how to set up tackle on a fishing rod, she is pulled into the Breakwater Club where its members reap the benefits of their coastal town by hunting and eating the fish they catch.

As with any great slice-of-life anime, the cast is well-balanced with a precocious newcomer who’s a greenhorn at the subject of the show and a crew of eccentric and experienced masters of their craft. It adds to the show’s premise that the Breakwater Club is considered to be unorthodox and unusual even within the rural coastal town they live in, making it all the more unfortunate for Tsurugi to be pulled away from the Handicrafts Club to join the other girls in doing something as unhip as fishing.

Kuroiwa stands out the most as the lovable president-ish of the Breakwater Club whose heavy accent is peppered throughout her dialogue. She also has a mischievous streak as she pulls all stops to coerce Tsurugi to join the club and leave her comfort zone to hunt down some sea life. This episode had a number of funny moments with her such as when she gutted and chopped up an octopus in front of Tsurugi and when she and Tsurugi silently scoffed at each other for being deeply rooted in their respective city and country lifestyles.

Other members of the club don’t have as much of a role in the episode, but we are introduced to Tsurugi’s childhood friend named Natsumi who has Tsurugi assist in making some chum to catch and fry up smaller fish. The last member is Makoto, a tall, silent girl who is skillful enough to catch a ton of them in one go.

The first episode of Houkago Teibou Nisshi shows a ton of promise as a comical anime that not only gives you pointers on how to fish but also provides a ton of humor with how blunt the Breakwater Club’s members are in butchering the fish they catch and ignoring social cues that Tsurugi had gotten used to in the city. Predictably, I would likely end up getting invested in this series because it’s an easygoing slice-of-life that fits well within my comfort zone. With that in mind, it’s a relief to say that Houkago Teibou Nisshi is easily one of the best CGDCT anime this season.